Edinburgh Fringe Fest - Stamptown Comedy Night

Enter the universe of cult phenomenon, Stamptown Comedy Night. A raunchy, chaotic, late night alternative variety show from the producers of massive Fringe hits such as Jordan Gray, Emily Wilson, BriTANick and Zach & Viggo. Stamptown is its own genre, its own world with returning characters, sketches and skits that develop on stage. Nothing makes sense outside of Stamptown, but everything makes sense inside it. This is a comedy show club exclusively made up of ‘you had to be there’ moments.

We spoke to producer, performer and the ‘bad boy of clowning’ Zach Zucker to find out more about this ridiculously inventive and incredibly fun night…

Stamptown Comedy Night is back! For those who are Stamptown virgins, please explain this chaotic night as best you can?

God this is the question that has plagued us every time we’ve tried to sell this show to any of the brainless TV executives that we’ve met with for the past five years. To sum it all up as easily as possible: it fucking rules and it’s extremely epic. It’s a showcase of the most exciting performers from all over the world, spanning across all different genres of performance. To put it simply: it’s the greatest show on Earth and if you come there’s a good chance you leave with your mind blown and a shag behind the dumpsters.

What’s the wildest thing that has happened at a Stamptown show?

Probably a three-way tie between getting yanked offstage by security at the O2 Arena this past March for Just For Laughs London, Natalie Palamides causing two separate couples to breakup because of a Mermaid routine that she does, and doing a human centipede where 3 people ate popcorn out of each other’s bodies (don’t think about it too much). Absolutely no regrets for all of these.

What is your favourite thing about bringing Stamptown Comedy Night to Edinburgh?

Being able to spend time with all of our amazing and talented friends from all over the world for 30 days straight. Doing the Fringe is extremely damaging to all of us mentally, physically, emotionally, psychologically and financially, but the reason we still do it is because it’s the least complicated way to gather with everyone we love for an extended period of time before we all disperse to our various corners of our (flat) Earth. We're so thankful to be surrounded by such shining stars from all walks of life and until we all get rich, we’re going to continue to plan our year around a city where vegetables are nearly impossible to find, and we will LIKE IT.

If Zach Zucker/Jack Tucker wasn’t a comedian, what would be your day job?

I know this isn’t the most exciting answer but there’s truly nothing else I could possibly do. Believe me, I didn’t want to be a clown, let alone a nomadic one. It’s a cursed life that nobody should explicitly want to live, it just happens to be the only way I’ve figured out how to make ~some~ amount of money and happiness while we figure out what our purpose is. Tucker is even more of a lost cause. Zucker is at least aware of his professional delusions, but Tucker literally thinks the Ninja Turtles are real… Which sort of makes Zucker believe that too. It’s a nightmare that feeds itself and performing in front of thousands (hundreds) of people is the only remedy!

Stamptown always produces some of the most interesting shows at the Fringe. Who are you championing this year?

We’ve got a killer line-up of 17 shows this year (!!!) which feels like a small amount, but I can promise you the amount of emails I wake up to in a panic every morning would prove otherwise.

We’re bringing back some Fringe favourites such as Michelle Brasier, Courtney Pauroso, Huge Davies, BriTANicK, Mark Silcox, Viggo Venn, Josh Glanc, Mr. Chonkers, Kevin Quantum, Jack Tucker, Zach Zucker and Stamptown Comedy Night, as well as some insanely talented newcomers like Annabel Marlow, Martin Urbano, Ike Ufomadu, Moses Storm and Drew Michael.

We’ve also got an incredible team of producers including Michaella Drummond, Alan Kliffer, Ross MacLeod and my sweet little baby brother David Zucker.

Stamptown Comedy Night will be at 11pm in Pleasance Courtyard (Forth) on 5th, 10th-12th, 17th-19th, 24th-26th August

Book HERE